


them homesick blues (and radical views)

by iwatobiaquarium (daleked)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: M/M, Parallel Universes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 01:45:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7200602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daleked/pseuds/iwatobiaquarium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>Steve wakes up. The ceiling swims for a couple of seconds, in and out of focus, and though Steve won’t admit to having spent a whole bunch of nights lying awake in bed in Stark Tower, he does recognize the place.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	them homesick blues (and radical views)

**Author's Note:**

> Mushroomhobbit does the sweetest Tony art, and I kind of wanted to write that Tony. So I did.

Steve wakes up. The ceiling swims for a couple of seconds, in and out of focus, and though Steve won’t admit to having spent a whole bunch of nights lying awake in bed in Stark Tower, he does recognize the place.

“He’s good,” comes a familiar voice. “He’s alive.”

Another voice chips in. “He is kinda handsome.”

A third voice, Natasha’s. “Shut up.”

“He’s _me_ ,” the first voice says, and Steve sits up so quickly he feels the blood rush and sways. There are two pairs of hands steadying him, and he turns instinctively to the warmer pair.

His own face stares back at him.

 _Not a good time to pass out,_ Steve’s brain comments, and he manages not to. Just barely.

“I see you holding off on swooning there,” comes Tony’s voice, and Steve turns around immediately. It is Tony, except that his smile goes all the way to his eyes when he looks at Steve.

It shouldn’t surprise Steve how good it looks on him, but it does. His eyes are alight with mirth and affection, and Tony glances at Other Steve before his gaze settles back down on Steve. The Real Steve. Him Steve. Wow. Two Steve Rogers. Oh. Oh no. _Oh no._

“Don’t crowd him,” Bruce says mildly. “I daresay he needs some time to adjust. Inter-universe portals don’t look like they treat human bodies kindly.”

Steve takes in a deep breath, and turns back to Other Steve.

“There’s two of me,” he says, very calmly, definitely not screaming.

“So there is,” Other Steve says, and he looks like he’s definitely not screaming too.

“Exciting,” Clint says, from another corner of the room, followed by “ow stop hitting me you’re hurting me” and Tony snorts. When Steve looks over at their corner, Natasha gives him a thin-lipped smile, as though they’re strangers again, and he realizes just how truly lost he feels.

+

Thor takes off to look for this world’s Loki, who is apparently a great deal friendlier than the Loki from Steve’s original world. But also a great deal more elusive, apparently, as Thor mentions something about him being gone for the past year seeking ancient tomes.

They shack him up in the quarters he used to occupy back in the original Stark Tower. When Steve protests, because Other Steve needs somewhere to sleep too, Clint doubles over laughing and Natasha starts hitting him again.

Bruce smiles awkwardly. “Our Steve sleeps elsewhere these days.”

“Oh,” Steve says, and doesn’t question it, because he’s in a parallel universe and it might be parallel, but some things change.

Like the way Tony looks at him, for example.

This Tony is, for a lack of a better description, kinda slinky. There’s something about him that Steve finds different from the Tony in his world, and he realises that it’s in his eyes and smile. This Tony is far less guarded around him. He’s much friendlier with Other Steve too, and during movie night Tony sidles up between them with a massive bowl of popcorn and blinks innocently at Other Steve, lips curling up in a smile that Steve wants to sketch.

Both Steves go for the popcorn immediately.

Other Steve is nice and respectful, though he maintains his distance. Steve doesn’t blame him. If Other Steve had ended up in his world he’d feel weirded out too. So he doesn’t blame him, and spars with Natasha instead.

(When he asks about Bucky and Sam, Natasha inclines her head in a manner that Steve knows means top secret mission, so he doesn’t probe further. But he does find happy photos scattered around the living area-- Bucky mid-cackle in one manic photo dated last New Year’s Eve, and Sam has his arm slung around Bucky’s shoulders as he waves a glass of champagne at the camera. They’re both in tuxes. Natasha is smiling in the background of the photo too, resplendent in a black gown, arm in arm with Pepper.)

Natasha doesn’t hold back during the spar, and when Clint joins in the fun Steve can truly lose himself in fighting.

He finds himself pinned to the mats.

“He’s slower,” Natasha says to Clint. “Holding back, I think.”

“Please let me up,” Steve says. He can just about crane his neck enough to see Clint.

“Our Steve is a bit more limber too,” Clint says, but Steve can see a twinkle in his eye. “But I can imagine why-- ow! Stop hitting me! Look, he’ll find out sooner or later!”

+

And Steve does find out what’s going on.

He walks in on them kissing one morning. It’s a tender scene, and had it been anyone but Other Him and Tony, Steve would have backed out politely. But Tony has one hand on Other Steve’s bicep and the other on his cheek, and his eyes are closed. Steve watches in horror as Other Steve’s hands go from school-dance safe to _possessive_ , cupping Tony’s ass and pulling him closer.

Steve has no idea what to say, but Other Steve hears his gasp and lets go of Tony immediately.

“Babe,” Tony says, ready to protest, and then follows Other Steve’s gaze to where Steve is standing. “Oh.”

“Hello,” Steve says, and his voice is pitched way higher than usual. “I have to go now.” He does want to leave, actually. But his feet remain rooted to the ground, and he stares at them in horror.

Other Steve steps forward. “No. You need to understand this.”

“There’s nothing to understand,” Steve says, definitely not screaming again. Squeaking, more like. “In this universe I am having sex with Tony.”

“We’re married,” Other Steve says, and his voice is firm. “Not just having sex. Married. We live together, sleep together, and we have wedding rings.”

“Sex _is_ involved, though,” Tony points out. “In case that wasn’t clear.”

+

“You didn’t tell me,” Steve says to Other Steve.

Other Steve shrugs. “It was pretty clear from the way you looked at Tony that you’d never seen him like this. But I don’t blame you. It took him a while to get here.” And he twists the platinum band on his ring finger fondly. “Three years, in fact.”

And Steve freezes, because he hasn’t been awake for more than two. He says as much, and Other Steve nods.

“I know that. Tony built a window into your world. Just a window, not a portal. See, time flows differently in different universes. The moment your Loki threw you into the portal, you should have been ripped apart like you would have been in a black hole. But it just so happened that the time flow here synchronized with the time there, and... Well, you appeared. Downtown, I have to add. We brought you here.”

Steve frowns. “But you’re in the future.”

Other Steve shakes his head, grinning. “This isn’t the future. It’s just a parallel universe. Tony sat me down and explained everything to me the third night. You see, time passes faster here. And time passes slower where you’re from. But time is kinda... Like a wave, I guess. It ebbs. We’re getting closer to an event where my time will slow down and your time will speed up enough that we’ll match up and you can go through with no problem again. But we’ll need Loki for that.”

“I’ve been here two weeks,” Steve says.

“You’ve been missing in your world for one,” Other Steve tells him gently. A sly grin creeps over his face. “Your Tony’s pretty worried.”

Steve turns red.

“We’re not like that,” he manages to say without stammering. “He’s closed-off, you know. And he keeps ungodly hours.”

Other Steve gives him a look. “So do we.” Then the grin grows. “Tony’s great in bed, though. Really flexible. Can’t take me down in sparring but in the bedroom he’s definitely--”

“Please stop,” Steve begs, and buries his face in his hands. “I don’t want to think about it.”

Other Steve leans back against the couch. “You already do. Late night when no one is around, and sometimes you think about it when you’re yelling at each other. His lips get real swollen and tender, though. So watch that.”

“Why are you talking about my lips?” Tony asks, and both Steves sit up straight. Tony stands in the doorway, idly working on a gauntlet. When he looks up, he gives Steve a small awkward smile. Other Steve gets up and presses a kiss to Tony’s forehead, holding him close.

“Just boasting. Do we have news?”

Tony nods. “Thor should be back any minute.”

As if on cue, both Thor and Loki materialize. Loki’s cloak still has snow clinging to the edges of it, but the moment he sees the three of them, his face falls.

Loki turns to Thor. “You failed to mention that this one was from so far away.”

“Apologies, brother,” Thor rumbles. “I did not stay long to ascertain his origins. We had to seek you out immediately. Doubtless, his world misses him, as does his Tony.”

“We’re not involved in the other world,” Tony says. “But thanks, Thor.”

Loki sighs. “I’ll get this over with so I may return to my travels and studies.”

“Much obliged,” Thor says, and disappears into the kitchen. There’s the sound of a bag of potato chips being opened.

Loki tuts, and turns to the three of them once more. “Say your goodbyes, and I’ll bring him home. And make sure he doesn’t try to hit me, or I _will_ drop him.”

Tony pats Steve’s arm. “It was nice having you around.”

“Even if Tony didn’t get the threesome he wanted,” Other Steve comments idly. And Steve truly looks at himself. He’s mostly the same, sure, but more relaxed, shoulders loose as he loops an arm around Tony’s waist. Other Steve looks utterly comfortable, a man in his own skin, a man who knows where he belongs.

A wave of envy washes over Steve, and he bids them both goodbye politely. Loki grabs his wrist, and comes close enough that Steve can feel the cold radiating off him.

“Let’s go,” Loki says. The world around Steve is starting to swirl the funny way it did around him when the original Loki had attacked.

“Bamonte’s,” Other Steve says suddenly from beside Tony. “Take him to Bamonte’s.” There’s a smile on Tony’s face as he waves goodbye as well, and Steve takes one last look at the both of them.

They look good together.

Loki brings him through a number of different worlds. They shine in the dark between universes, and Steve stares at all of them in wonder.

Steve sees one in which he had lived and died an ordinary man. He sees another where he and Tony are divided over laws, and Sam and Bucky are running by his side. There is another where Tony is a woman and she rocks a baby in her arms as Steve approaches with a bottle of milk, and another where Steve is holding Peggy’s niece’s hand, and yet another where Tony is dead and Steve lives on.

He materializes in his own universe, and he knows it’s his because Tony is guzzling coffee straight from the pot, dark circles beneath his eyes evident, and Thor is sitting on the sofa holding a bowl full of what looks like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos con Limón.

“Bye,” Loki says lazily, and stops to wink at Thor flirtatiously before vanishing.

The moment Loki is gone, Tony practically dashes over to Steve.

“It’s you,” Tony says in wonder, and it’s a little garbled and his breath smells of black coffee, but Steve has never felt so fond of him before. “How... Was that Loki? We had a rough idea of where you’d gone, and I’ve been doing calculations, you’ve been missing for over a week--” Steve shushes him with a finger to his lips, and Tony practically goes cross-eyed trying to look at it. From the looks of it, Tony’s nearly out of it with sleep deprivation, and Steve is doing all he can to not find it incredibly cute.

“It’s a long story,” Steve says, ready to offer an explanation. But he’s interrupted when Thor rises up slowly, leaving his bowl on the sofa. “That was not my brother.”

“He’s the brother of another Thor, yes,” Steve agrees.

Thor’s eyes shine. “I like this one better.”

Steve thinks of what the Loki from this world has done, and nods. “Me too, Thor. Me too.”

And Steve does eventually ask the Tony of this world to Bamonte’s, but that’s a story for another time.

**Author's Note:**

> Please tell me what you thought of this. I can also be found on [tumblr](http://ukedio.tumblr.com/)!  
> 


End file.
